The Poughkeepsie Bridge

Tlifi l'onghkeepsie Eag!e says: People who have been watching the erection oí the falso work at the east shoro anchorage pier at the bridge and out n i the river between piers 2 and 3 have been wondorfully intcrestcd n the agility and what seemed to theni daro-.devil recklessni'ss of tiic trained men on the job. They liave seen them crawling alono; on the girders and braees uearly a huudred feet high, leaping from tiniber to timber, or running along the nurrow plauking, now stooping over to a;.d in the hoisting of timber or iron, now standing on the extreme edge oi tlic river front of work poering down upoi! the roeks and r.ver below, or gong along hand over hand among the bracea with apparently as mueh ease and comfort as though moviug along on terra firma. 'They are all used to that kind o) work," said Gen. Field, of the Union Bridge company, "and have no fear ! whatever. When we were building the cantilever over the whirlpool rapids at Niágara, 240 feet above the running i waters, they were just as daring as thuy are here. I remember when we had the job about completad I was up tirare one day. Tho cantilever arms j were tlieu within fifty feet of each ! other, and it was dec ded to connect ! lliem temporarily with a plank. This l)lank was about fifty-hVts feet in lenglh, about two and a half feet of ' each end resting on the cantilever '', arma. The foreman had issued a strict ! order prohibiting any oue of the men tram crossing the plank until it was limly fastened at e;ich end, the 1 tv Ix'ing iinmediate disini.ssal. There had befan a great deal of talk amon liie men ns to who would be the flrst (ino to cross. 1 was standing on tho American side of the structure, when I anw one of the men walk out on tho plank, look at it a minute, then look down hito the whirlpool below. 1 feit that he was going to cross the plank, bnt I was too fat from him to mako him hear. He waited a second or two, and then delibératela walked out on the plank, and whn he reached the ! middle of it he stooped over, seizod the edges of the plank In both hands, and, throwing h s feet up, stood on his head and kicked his heels and shouted to the the terrifïc lookers on. He must havo been a minute doing it, but I feit as though it was half an hour. After satisfying himself that he had kicked enough he regained his equilibrium and trottud along the plank to the opposite side from wliere he started, seized hold one of the iron braees of the cantilever and went down it head first, hand over Imnd to the botlom. I never saw any th ing like it before. Of course the foreman diseharged him and he wis ; laid oft'two or three days, wlien I sent for him. He was oue of the best men on the job, and I talkcd to him like a Dutch uucle, and put him to work again. These men have no fear; they are brought up to the business, and feel just as safe 150 feet in the air as thoy do on the ground. Of course I can seo how people wonder at such things, but we have got used to it. The besl time to see them travel is at the dinner hour or when the day's work is completed.